BigPipe Help line

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › BigPipe Help line

LittleGiant

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#165777 20-Feb-2015 12:47

Just a thought;
I'm new to this forum, but I find it hard to believe that an ISP doesn't have an customer service help desk.
they said everything is an online based but if I have a problem with the internet, HOW DO I GET ONLINE TO ENQUIRE/ASK FOR HELP?

As of friend mine thinking of joining BigPipe but when I told them that there no call center, they just pull it off straigtaway without second thought

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#1243010 20-Feb-2015 12:54

I don't use BigPipe yet, but I will when I get UFB in April.
I prefer Online support as opposed to calling and waiting on the phone line for assistance.

I will use a mobile phone to get online if I really have to. I have seen many people saying they respond pretty quick.

Lias

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#1243014 20-Feb-2015 13:00

People who don't feel comfortable using their smartphones for email/web browsing are probably not their target audience for a start.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

VinLew

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#1243016 20-Feb-2015 13:05

Whenever I've had a connection problem with Bigpipe, I've just tweeted them.
Always had good service from their SM teams.

NonprayingMantis

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#1243017 20-Feb-2015 13:06

They have a Helpdesk, you just can't call it, only email.
Works great.
Urgent stuff gets priority, unlike a call centre where it's first come first served.
Also, waiting on hold sucks balls. For non urgent stuff I'd much rather watch tv whilst I wait and pick up the response at my leisure.

To answer the op. How do you get online if your broadband is down? Smartphone.

Nobody ever seems to question why telecom/spark has a phone help desk when the service is a phone line.
"OMG How do you call 123 if your landline is down?!!??!!1111"

kodiaknz

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#1243021 20-Feb-2015 13:12

I'm a Network Engineer and I can tell you that being able to email to get something looked at makes me really happy. I hated staying on call with Telstra listening to their awful 90s buffet restaurant hold music. Oh and then it goes through to a T1 who tells you to restart your modem (already done that), etc etc - being able to email saying "I'v done this, and that" then them being able to immediately escalate internally without wasting everyone's time is great.

Yeah - if my internet is not working, I have a phone(s) with data plans. No biggie.

nakedmolerat

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#1243023 20-Feb-2015 13:15

I blogged about BigPipe email support - it is great! http://www.geekzone.co.nz/nakedmolerat/8748

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jtan

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#1243103 20-Feb-2015 14:49

I have had a couple of times where the internet hasn't worked w/ BigPipe and I've had to contact their CS team.

After performing the usual 'DIY' internet troubleshooting steps (turning the router off and on, etc) then I've just flicked them an E-Mail via. their site. Usually they're pretty good and have the issue resolved within a few hours. I have been called before by their CS team about an issue, so it's not all E-mail support.

richms

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#1243106 20-Feb-2015 14:56

The good thing with decent email support is that they don't do what a certain red telcos does which is take 3 days to get to your email, which says you have tried calling and had a long hold time, and the reply is basically "please call our help desk who can assist with this".

The email support works. It works well. Don't base your expectations of email support on other ISPs which treat it like an annoyance that staff deal with during quiet times. It's real support and you have a complete record of the happenings unlike phone support where unless you record it then becomes your notes against theirs.

Richard rich.ms

Flickky

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#1243120 20-Feb-2015 15:24

jtan: I have had a couple of times where the internet hasn't worked w/ BigPipe and I've had to contact their CS team.

After performing the usual 'DIY' internet troubleshooting steps (turning the router off and on, etc) then I've just flicked them an E-Mail via. their site. Usually they're pretty good and have the issue resolved within a few hours. I have been called before by their CS team about an issue, so it's not all E-mail support.

Yup. We're email-based support, but if it gets to a point where a phone call is going to resolve the issue faster than a back-and-forth email conversation we'll hop on the phone.

Our average response times are on our support page too - currently we’re averaging around 37 minutes for urgent queries like connection issues.

As for how awesome our customer support is, the rest of the responses in this thread gives you an indication! :D

Handle9

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#1243126 20-Feb-2015 15:29

At the end of the day that is their business model and it seems to work for them, and it works for me as a customer.

The one thing they could do to improve the support would be have a network status page for the occasions where they have outages. It would have saved me a bit of pain when they had the dns issue. Saying that the email support was good then, despite it affeting lots of their customers..

Detruire

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#1243210 20-Feb-2015 17:35

If you have mobile data or some easyish access to the internet (other than your connection), the email support works fine. If you don't, you're probably better off going with an ISP that does have a call center.

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networkn

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#1243222 20-Feb-2015 17:53

Flickky:
jtan: I have had a couple of times where the internet hasn't worked w/ BigPipe and I've had to contact their CS team.

After performing the usual 'DIY' internet troubleshooting steps (turning the router off and on, etc) then I've just flicked them an E-Mail via. their site. Usually they're pretty good and have the issue resolved within a few hours. I have been called before by their CS team about an issue, so it's not all E-mail support.

Yup. We're email-based support, but if it gets to a point where a phone call is going to resolve the issue faster than a back-and-forth email conversation we'll hop on the phone.

Our average response times are on our support page too - currently we’re averaging around 37 minutes for urgent queries like connection issues.

As for how awesome our customer support is, the rest of the responses in this thread gives you an indication! :D

37 minutes to respond the first time or 37 minutes for resolution? I'd be impressed if it was the latter.

networkn

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#1243224 20-Feb-2015 17:54

Handle9: At the end of the day that is their business model and it seems to work for them, and it works for me as a customer.

The one thing they could do to improve the support would be have a network status page for the occasions where they have outages. It would have saved me a bit of pain when they had the dns issue. Saying that the email support was good then, despite it affeting lots of their customers..

I am not a customer but it seems odd an online only service provider wouldn't have an online outage indicator.

NonprayingMantis

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#1243228 20-Feb-2015 18:03

networkn:
Handle9: At the end of the day that is their business model and it seems to work for them, and it works for me as a customer.

The one thing they could do to improve the support would be have a network status page for the occasions where they have outages. It would have saved me a bit of pain when they had the dns issue. Saying that the email support was good then, despite it affeting lots of their customers..

I am not a customer but it seems odd an online only service provider wouldn't have an online outage indicator.

They do. I've seen it.

lxsw20

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#1243243 20-Feb-2015 18:52

I email them to upgrade to VDSL, I get an email back half an hour later saying it's confirmed to go ahead next week. Can't ask for better service than that.

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